Does anyone know if this is a full blown version of FTM or is it one of those skeleton "free" samples that is really a sales tool designed to get you to buy the real thing?
Source: http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/topics.software.famtreemaker/9292/mb.ashx
New Years Eve New Year chicago bears redskins adrian peterson NFL playoff schedule 2013 tony romo
There were a lot of great games released in 2012. If you had to whittle all of your favorite gaming experiences from the year down to one particular moment, what would it be?
How about I go first??
My moment of the year came courtesy of Far Cry 3. I was staking out a pirate outpost from a distance. I'm kind of neurotic with these kinds of things, and I was taking my time. I'd walk a few steps, scan the patrols with my camera, and then move into cover. Over the course of about 10 minutes I had worked my way around the perimeter, and I was just about ready to mount my attack. I pulled out my sniper rifle for one last quick survey and was lining up a shot when, out of nowhere, a tiger pounced on the pirate I'd zoomed in on and the place immediately erupted into chaos. I ended up just walking in with a shotgun and mowing down the unsuspecting (and understandably panicked) survivors.
It was silly, unexpected, and a fitting summary of one of my favorite games of the year.
This isn't a favorite moment, but I figured I'd share while I still had your attention. I was playing some Skyrim yesterday (getting around to playing the DLC), when a dragon did one of its dragony nosedives at me and my party. It hit the ground with its nose, and, without changing from the diving pose, ricocheted off and bounced into the stratosphere. That was really...something.
Your turn! What do you have?
As you might imagine, the comments are going to be a minefield of potential spoilers. Tread carefully.
12/12/12 manny pacquiao Chopper Live Johnny Manziel jerry brown michael buble michael buble
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) ? Thousands of tons of building materials such as cement and steel began crossing into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said, temporarily easing a five year old blockade on the coastal territory.
An Egyptian security official said shipment was made in consultation with Israeli officials, who were in Cairo Thursday to discuss security in the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreed upon by Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel last month. The Egyptian official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The director of Gaza's border authority, Maher Abu Sabha, confirmed to The Associated Press that a total of 20 trucks carrying materials were expected to arrive in the coastal strip Saturday through the Rafah border crossing.
Qatar is paying for the raw materials that were bought in Egypt, the official added.
The tiny oil-rich Gulf country has pledged 24 projects worth some $425 million in the Gaza Strip to improve crumbling housing, schools, a hospital and roads.
Under former President Hosni Mubarak, Israel's longtime ally, Egypt had poor relations with Hamas, and teamed up with Israel to blockade Gaza after the militant group seized power from its rival Fatah in 2007, two years after winning elections.
While Israel has eased the blockade in recent years, key restrictions remain in place on exports out of Gaza and the entry of badly needed building materials and other goods into the territory.
New Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, of Hamas' parent group the Muslim Brotherhood, has vowed not to abandon the Palestinians. Unlike Mubarak in late 2008, Morsi kept the border crossing with the Gaza Strip open for movement of people and humanitarian supplies during Israel's latest offensive in November. Gaza has yet to fully recover from the two offensives, which left buildings, homes and schools in rubble.
Morsi reiterated in a nationwide speech Saturday that the Palestinian issue is important to Egyptians.
Since the blockade was first imposed, an extensive network of tunnels between Egypt and Gaza have been ferrying everything from cars to food to essential household items to Palestinians.
While Egypt has launched periodic crackdowns on the tunnels, its security forces generally ignore the movement of construction materials, fuel and consumer goods through what Palestinians consider an underground lifeline.
___
Associated Press correspondent Ibrahim Barzak contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-transfers-tons-building-materials-gaza-142354572.html
ricky rubio day light savings time peter paul and mary edgar rice burroughs dallas clark litter marinol
Authored by Michael Pettis, originally posted at China Financial Markets,
The IMF?s Il Houng Lee, Murtaza Syed, and Liu Xueyan have published a very interesting and widely noticed?study?called ?Is China Over-Investing and Does it Matter?? In it they argue that there is strong evidence that China is overinvesting significantly. According to the abstract:
Now close to 50 percent of GDP, this paper assesses the appropriateness of China?s current investment levels. It finds that China?s capital-to-output ratio is within the range of other emerging markets, but its economic growth rates stand out, partly due to a surge in investment over the last decade. Moreover, its investment is significantly higher than suggested by cross-country panel estimation.
?
This deviation has been accumulating over the last decade, and at nearly 10 percent of GDP is now larger and more persistent than experienced by other Asian economies leading up to the Asian crisis. However, because its investment is predominantly financed by domestic savings, a crisis appears unlikely when assessed against dependency on external funding. But this does not mean that the cost is absent. Rather, it is distributed to other sectors of the economy through a hidden transfer of resources, estimated at an average of 4 percent of GDP per year.
The article is well worth reading because it makes a very strong case, perhaps a little late, for what many of us have been arguing for the past seven or eight years. China?s investment rate is so high, we have argued, that even ignoring the tremendous evidence of misallocated investment, unless we can confidently propose that Beijing has uncovered a secret formula that allows it (and the tens of thousands of minor government officials and SOE heads who can unleash investment without much oversight) to identify high quality investment in a way that no other country in history has been able, there is likely to be a systematic tendency to wasted investment.
Interestingly enough, while two of the authors of the study work for the IMF, Liu Xueyan, the third, is a Senior Fellow in the Institute of Economic Research at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China. I don?t know how much we should read into this, but it is worth noting that both the World Bank report in March and this IMF study have involved input from important mainland think tanks.
This is noteworthy because both the World Bank report and this study have come out very strongly in the direction that the China ?skeptics? have been arguing for many years. They identify the urgent need for adjustment and suggest ? very delicately ? how difficult it will be. I assume that this is all part of the tough debate that is taking place within policy-making circles over the need to implement the very difficult political reforms that will be a necessary part of the economic rebalancing, and I guess the reformers are eager to recruit the World Bank and the IMF to their points of view.
How much overinvestment?
One of the implications of the study is that households and SMEs have been forced to subsidize growth at a cost to them of well over 4% of GDP annually. My own back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the cost to households is actually 5-8% of GDP ? perhaps because I also include the implicit subsidy to recapitalize the banks in the form of the excess spread between the lending and deposit rates ? but certainly I agree with the IMF study that this has been a massive transfer to subsidize growth.
This subsidy also explains most of the collapse in the household share of GDP over the past twelve years. With household income only 50% of GDP, a transfer every year of 4% of GDP requires ferocious growth in household income for it just to keep pace with GDP, something it has never done until, possibly, this year.
The size of the transfer makes it very clear that without eliminating this subsidy ? which basically means abandoning the growth model ? it will be almost impossible to get the household and consumption shares of GDP to rise if China still hopes to maintain high GDP growth. The transfer of wealth from the household sector to maintain high levels of investment is simply too great, and this will be made all the more clear as the growth impact per unit of investment declines.
Another implication of the IMF study is that to get into line with other equivalent countries at this stage of its economic takeoff, China would have to reduce the investment share of GDP by at least ten percentage points and perhaps as much as twenty. Aside from pointing out that the sectors of the economy that have benefitted from such extraordinarily high investments are unlikely to celebrate such a finding, I have three comments. First, after many years in which China has invested far more than other countries at its stage of development, one could presumably argue that in order to get back to the ?correct? ratio, investment should be lower than the peer group, not equal to the peer group. In that case investment has to drop by a lot more than ten percentage points.
After all if China?s deviation from the experience of other countries is meaningful, then after a few years of substantial deviation, it cannot be enough for China simply to return to the mean. It must come in lower than the mean for a few years so that on average the deviation is eliminated.
Second, even if China had kept investment at the ?correct? level, as measured by the peer group, this would not imply that China has not overinvested. I haven?t been able to dig deeply into the comparison countries, but the study does list them, and a very quick glance suggests that many of these countries, after years of very high investment, themselves experienced deep crises or ?lost decades?.
This implies to me that these countries themselves overinvested, and so even if Chinese investment levels were not much higher than that of the peer group (and it was mainly in the past decade that Chinese investment rose to much higher levels than that of the peer group, and not in the 1990s, exactly as we have been suggesting using more qualitative measures), this could nonetheless be worrying. China would still have a difficult adjustment for the same reasons that many if not most of the peer group countries also had difficult adjustments.
The average number driven by the peer group sample, in other words, is not in itself an ?optimal? level of investment. It might already be too high. That Chinese investment levels have been so much higher than theirs is all the more worrying.
How much would growth have to slow?
My third point is more technical. If Chinese investment levels are much higher than optimal (assuming the peer group average is indeed optimal), of course the best solution for China is immediately to reduce investment until it reaches the right level. The longer investment rates are too high, the greater the impact of losses that have eventually to be amortized, and the worse off China is likely to be.
But it will be very hard for China to bring investment down as a share of GDP by ten full percentage points very quickly. Let us assume instead that China has five years to bring investment levels down to the ?correct? level, and let us assume further that the ?correct? level is indeed ten percentage points below where it is today. Both assumptions are, I think, dangerous because I am not convinced that an investment level of 40% of GDP is the ?correct? level for China going forward (I think it must be much lower) and I don?t think China has five years to make the necessary adjustment without running a serious risk of a financial crisis.
But let us ignore both objections and give China five years to bring investment down to 40% of GDP from its current level of 50%. Chinese investment must grow at a much lower rate than GDP for this to happen. How much lower? The arithmetic is simple. It depends on what we assume GDP growth will be over the next five years, but investment has to grow by roughly 4.5 percentage points or more below the GDP growth rate for this condition to be met.
If Chinese GDP grows at 7%, in other words, Chinese investment must grow at 2.3%.??If China grows at 5%, investment must grow at 0.4%. And if China grows at 3%, which is much closer to my ten-year view, investment growth must actually contract by 1.5%. Only in this way will investment drop by ten percentage points as a share of GDP in the next five years.
The conclusion should be obvious, but to many analysts, especially on the sell side, it probably needs nonetheless to be spelled out. Any meaningful rebalancing in China?s extraordinary rate of overinvestment is only consistent with a very sharp reduction in the growth rate of investment, and perhaps even a contraction in investment growth.
In fact I think over the next few years China will indeed undergo a sharp contraction in investment growth, but my point here is simply to suggest that even under the most optimistic of scenarios it will be very hard to keep investment growth high. Either Beijing moves quickly to bring investment growth down sharply, or overinvestment will contribute to further financial fragility leading, ultimately, to the point where credit cannot expand quickly enough and investment will collapse anyway.
This is just arithmetic. The extent of Chinese overinvestment ? even if we assume that it has not already caused significant fragility in the banking system and enormous hidden losses yet to be amortized ? requires a very sharp contraction just to get back to a ?normal? which, in the past, was anyway associated with difficult economic adjustments. It is hard to imagine how such a sharp contraction in investment will itself not lead to a sharp drop in GDP growth, and the IMF paper recognizes this:
To the extent that elevated levels of investment during the post-crisis period in China were somehow abnormal and necessitated by the sharp external slowdown, the challenge now is how to return to a more ?normal? level of investment without compromising growth and macroeconomic stability.
(6 votes)
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/qHp229fTp3I/story01.htm
wilson chandler bristol motor speedway prometheus grand canyon skywalk tonga pid corned beef hash
Owning and operating a home-based business requires a lot of work to make it a successful endeavor.? These are the benefits of owning these types of businesses.
At some point in time, many individuals have aspired to own and operate their own home-based business because it will provide them with the freedom to gain financial independence and be their own boss.? There are numerous legitimate income opportunities to be had if a person is willing to do a little research and perform some due diligence in the process.
When aspiring entrepreneurs contemplate the viability of a profitable home based business, the first question that arises is: ?What makes a home-based business such a good idea??
The acronym ?JOB? stands for ?Just Over Broke.? Interestingly enough, this has never been closer to the truth before.? At some point in time, probably everybody has had the desire to be their own boss and operate a home based business.
The problem has always been that finding a viable business opportunity is not always that easy.? But when a person does and they get that first taste of success, there is no turning back.? The following content will present the major reasons why starting a home-based business is a good idea.
There is no one to answer to ? there is no boss threatening a person?s livelihood and their job security.? It is the greatest form of freedom and independence that anyone can experience when it comes to earning a living and loving their job.
Home-based businesses are not a 9 to 5 routine ? there is no weekly work schedule that has to be followed, no time clock to punch in and out on every day, without asking someone for a day off when it is needed.
There is no limit to the amount of money a person can earn ? having a regular job does not provide a person the opportunity to realize any type of substantial income.
The worst part of working for somebody else is that unless the person is a commissioned salesperson, their earnings will always be limited to the company pay scale.? There are two truisms about owning and operating a home-based business that always exists about earnings, when a person works for someone else:
o?? ?there will always be limits on a person?s earning potential
o?? ?the person will never get paid what they are worth
Keep the pajamas on all day if desired ? one of the things that a lot of people despise about their job, is the fact that they are oftentimes forced to wear clothing that they cannot stand.? This is especially true when they work for an employer that demands wearing a company uniform.? It?s even more aggravating, when the person has to take care of those uniforms themselves.? When a person has their own home-based business, they can wear what they want ? no shirt and tie is ever required.
The greatest investment a person can ever make is in themselves ? when a person invests in their own business, they are investing in themselves, and that is the best investment they can ever make in their lives.
Published in BusinessSource: http://www.articlearn.com/why-starting-a-home-based-business-is-a-good-idea/
lakers v for vendetta Time Fun Voting Locations atlanta falcons voting hours
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Following a Friday meeting with congressional leaders, an impatient and annoyed President Barack Obama said it was "mind boggling" that Congress has been unable to fix a "fiscal cliff" mess that everyone has known about for more than a year.
He then dispatched Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, on a mind-boggling mission: coming up with a bipartisan bill to break the "fiscal cliff" stalemate in the most partisan and gridlocked U.S. Congress of modern times - in about 48 hours.
Reid and McConnell, veteran tacticians known for their own long-running feud, have been down this road before.
Their last joint venture didn't turn out so well. It was the deal in August 2011 to avoid a U.S. default that set the stage for the current mess. That effort, like this one, stemmed from a grand deficit-reduction scheme that turned into a bust.
But they have never had the odds so stacked against them as they try to avert the "fiscal cliff" - sweeping tax increases set to begin on Tuesday and deep, automatic government spending cuts set to start on Wednesday, combined worth $600 billion.
The substantive differences are only part of the challenge. Other obstacles include concerns about who gets blamed for what and the legacy of distrust among members of Congress.
Any successful deal will require face-saving measures for Republicans and Democrats alike.
"Ordinary folks, they do their jobs, they meet deadlines, they sit down and they discuss things, and then things happen," Obama told reporters. "If there are disagreements, they sort though the disagreements. The notion that our elected leadership can't do the same thing is mind-boggling to them."
CORE DISAGREEMENT
The core disagreement between Republicans and Democrats is tough enough. It revolves around the low tax rates first put in place under Republican former President George W. Bush that expire at year's end. Republicans would extend them for everyone. Democrats would extend them for everyone except the wealthiest taxpayers.
The first step for Reid and McConnell may be to find a formula acceptable to their own parties in the Senate.
While members of the Senate, more than members of the House of Representatives, have expressed flexibility on taxes, it's far from a sure thing in a body that ordinarily requires not just a majority of the 100-member Senate to pass a bill, but a super-majority of 60 members.
With 51 Democrats, two independents who vote with the Democrats and 47 Republicans, McConnell and Reid may have to agree to suspend the 60-vote rule.
Getting a bill through the Republican-controlled House may be much tougher. The conservative wing of the House, composed of many lawmakers aligned with the Tea Party movement who fear being targeted by anti-tax activists in primary elections in 2014, has shown it will not vote for a bill that raises taxes on anyone, even if it means defying Republican House Speaker John Boehner.
Many Democrats are wedded to the opposite view - and have vowed not to support continuing the Bush-era tax rates for people earning more than $250,000 a year.
Some senators are wary of the procedural conditions House Republicans are demanding. Boehner is insisting the Senate start its work with a bill already passed by the House months ago that would continue all Bush-era tax cuts for another year. The Democratic-controlled Senate may amend the Republican bill, he says, but it must be the House bill.
For Boehner, it's the regular order when considering revenue measures, which the U.S. Constitution says must originate in the House.
SHIFT BLAME
As some Democrats see it, it's a way to shift blame if the enterprise goes down in flames. House Republicans would be able to claim that since they had already done their part by passing a bill, the Senate should take the blame for plunging the nation off the "cliff."
And that could bring public wrath, currently centered mostly on Republicans, onto the heads of Democrats.
Voters may indeed be looking for someone to blame if they see their paychecks shrink as taxes rise or their retirement savings dwindle as a result of a plunge in global markets.
If Reid and McConnell succeed, there could be political ramifications for each side. For example, a deal containing any income tax hikes could complicate McConnell's own 2014 re-election effort in which small-government, anti-tax Tea Party activists are threatening to mount a challenge.
If Obama and his fellow Democrats are perceived as giving in too much, it could embolden Republicans to mount challenge after challenge, possibly handcuffing the president before his second term even gets off the ground.
It could be a sprint to the finish. One Democratic aide expected "negotiation for a day." If the aide is correct, the world would know by late on Saturday or early on Sunday if Washington's political dysfunction is about to reach a new, possibly devastating, low.
If Reid and McConnell reach a deal, it would then be up to the full Senate and House to vote, possibly as early as Sunday.
Reid and McConnell have been through bitter fights before. The deficit reduction and debt limit deal that finally was secured last year was a brawl that ended only when the two leaders agreed to a complicated plan that secured about $1 trillion in savings, but really postponed until later a more meaningful plan to restore the country's fiscal health.
That effort led to the automatic spending cuts that form part of the "fiscal cliff."
Just months later, in December 2011, Reid and McConnell were going through a tough fight over extending a payroll tax cut.
In both instances, it was resistance from conservative House Republicans that complicated efforts, just as is the case now with the "fiscal cliff." (Editing by Fred Barbash and Will Dunham)
Related on HuffPost:
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/29/fiscal-cliff-obama_n_2380057.html
Sweetest Day optimal Samantha Steele Espn goog Sylvia Kristel st louis cardinals Steelers Schedule
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) ? LeBron James and the short-handed Heat were no match for Detroit's brilliant bench.
Will Bynum had 25 points and 10 assists, leading another spirited performance by the Pistons' reserves, and Detroit beat Miami 109-99 on Friday night despite 35 points by James.
Miami was without Dwyane Wade, suspended for a game by the NBA for flailing his leg and making contact with a Charlotte player Wednesday.
The Detroit reserves, who scored 85 points in a loss to Atlanta on Wednesday, contributed 64 this time. Charlie Villanueva had 18 points and Austin Daye added 11, helping the Pistons snap Miami's six-game winning streak.
"Their bench came in and turned it up about 17 notches. We let them get into a comfort zone in the second quarter, and after that, they were making all kinds of contested shots," James said. "It's hard to make any kind of run when a team keeps doing that to you."
The Heat scored the game's first 10 points and led by 15 after one quarter, but the momentum shifted for good when the Pistons outscored Miami 41-20 in the second.
Chris Bosh had 28 points for the Heat.
Miami had cut a 17-point deficit to four early in the fourth, but Detroit's reserves steadied themselves. Rookie big man Andre Drummond scored inside, Villanueva scored after a turnover by James, and a 3-pointer by Bynum pushed the lead back to double digits at 88-77.
"That little split of doubt that you can have ? it's a turnover, it's a missed shot, it's a bad play," Bynum said. "You just have to be aggressive and confident."
That's rarely a problem for Bynum, who looks out of control at times but can lift his team with his energy. He's played in only 22 of Detroit's 32 games this season, but he scored 31 points Wednesday and followed it up with another remarkable performance against the Heat.
"Will kind of got squeezed in the rotation," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "Had several DNPs, stayed the course, and he deserves all the credit."
Detroit led 95-84 after Villanueva corralled a wild pass from Bynum and made a 3-pointer. Daye added a dunk in transition off a slick drop pass from Bynum for a 101-90 lead.
Bynum scored 13 points in the fourth quarter.
"He was amazing," James said. "He controlled the game with his motor and his offense. He was hitting everything and he was getting everyone else involved. We couldn't do anything with him."
The Pistons shot 58 percent from the field to Miami's 51. The Heat had been 31-0 since the beginning of last season when shooting at least 50 percent.
The Heat said before the game they didn't agree with Wade's suspension for making contact with Charlotte's Ramon Sessions earlier in the week.
"That's no excuse. We still had enough," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Obviously, we're a different team with Dwyane, but we have enough depth that we should be able to overcome missing one guy for a night."
Miami breezed through the first quarter, taking a 10-0 lead and eventually making 11 of its first 14 shots. It was 32-17 after one, but the game turned almost immediately.
Detroit's bench was again outstanding. The Pistons scored the first 14 points of the second and finally took a 41-39 lead on Villanueva's 3-pointer.
The bench ? specifically Villanueva, Bynum, Drummond and Daye ? scored 36 of Detroit's 41 points in the quarter, and the Pistons went into halftime with a 58-52 lead.
And that was only the beginning. Miami didn't start the third quarter any better than the second, allowing nine straight points. Greg Monroe's basket made it 76-59, and although the Heat increased the pressure defensively, they didn't always get the results they wanted.
After Shane Battier and James made consecutive 3-pointers to pull Miami within nine, James thought he'd knocked the ball away from Jason Maxiell cleanly near midcourt. But a foul was called and Maxiell made one of two free throws to make it 79-69.
It was 81-71 after three.
NOTES: Udonis Haslem is now Miami's career leader with 620 games played, snapping a tie with Wade because of the suspension. Haslem appeared to hurt his right shoulder early on when landing hard after an acrobatic block on Kyle Singler, but he was able to play on. ... Drummond had 10 points and 10 rebounds. ... James and Bosh were the only Miami players to score in double figures.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bynum-pistons-top-short-handed-heat-109-99-041623562--spt.html
april 20 jennifer love hewitt secret service prostitution 4 20 george zimmerman sheree whitfield weather dallas
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The State Department has closed its embassy in the Central African Republic and ordered the ambassador and his diplomatic team to leave the country as rebels there continue to advance and violence escalates, U.S. officials said Thursday.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, said that at the State Department's request, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had directed U.S. Africa Command to evacuate U.S. citizens and designated foreign nationals from the U.S. Embassy in Bangui "to safe havens in the region."
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. Embassy had temporarily suspended operations, but not diplomatic relations with the country.
"This decision is solely due to concerns about the security of our personnel and has no relation to our continuing and long-standing diplomatic relations" with the Central African Republic, Ventrell said in a statement.
Shortly after announcing the evacuation Thursday, the State Department warned U.S. citizens against travel to the Central African Republic, saying it could not "provide protection or routine consular services to U.S. citizens" and urging Americans who have decided to stay to "review their personal security situation and seriously consider departing" on commercial flights. Four days earlier, the State Department had issued a warning recommending against travel to the country and authorizing its non-emergency personnel in Bangui to leave.
U.S. officials said about 40 people were evacuated on an U.S. Air Force plane bound for Kenya. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the details of the operation.
The departure of Ambassador Laurence Wohlers and his staff comes as the president of the Central African Republic on Thursday urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching this capital city, but French officials declined to offer any military assistance.
Rebels have seized at least 10 towns across the sparsely populated north, and residents in the capital of 600,000 people fear insurgents could attack at any time.
The developments suggest the Central African Republic could be on the brink of another violent change in government, something not new to the impoverished country. The current president, Francois Bozize, himself came to power nearly a decade ago in the wake of a rebellion.
Speaking to crowds in Bangui, Bozize pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic's former colonial ruler.
About 200 French soldiers are already in the country, providing technical support and helping to train the local army, according to the French defense ministry.
French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that France wants to protect its interests in Central African Republic and not Bozize's government. Paris is encouraging peace talks between the government and the rebels.
President Barack Obama late last year sent about 100 U.S. special operations forces to the region ? including Central African Republic ? to assist in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the fugitive rebel leader of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army. Forces have been hunting the elusive warlord in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Congo.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
___
Online:
http://bangui.usembassy.gov/service.html
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-shuts-embassy-central-african-republic-023509212--politics.html
denver weather planned parenthood what time does the superbowl start kobayashi margaret sanger paul george eddie long
Dec. 27, 2012 ? Researchers at Rush University Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University, have identified a molecular mechanism central to the development of osteoarthritis (OA) pain, a finding that could have major implications for future treatment of this often-debilitating condition.
"Clinically, scientists have focused on trying to understand how cartilage and joints degenerate in osteoarthritis. But no one knows why it hurts," said Dr. Anne-Marie Malfait, associate professor of biochemistry and of internal medicine at Rush, who led the study. An article describing the research was published in the Dec. 11 print version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Joint pain associated with OA has unique clinical features that provide insight into the mechanisms that cause it. First, joint pain has a strong mechanical component: It is typically triggered by specific activities (for example, climbing stairs elicits knee pain) and is relieved by rest. As structural joint disease advances, pain may also occur in rest. Heightened sensitivity to pain, including mechanical allodynia (pain caused by a stimulus that does not normally evoke pain, such as lightly brushing the skin with a cotton swab), and reduced pain-pressure thresholds are features of OA.
Malfait and her colleagues took a novel approach to unraveling molecular pathways of OA pain in a surgical mouse model exhibiting the slow, chronically progressive development of the disease. The study was conducted longitudinally, that is, the researchers were able to monitor development of both pain behaviors and molecular events in the sensory neurons of the knee and correlate the data from repeated observations over an extended period.
"This method essentially provides us with a longitudinal 'read-out' of the development of OA pain and pain-related behaviors, in a mouse model" Malfait said.
The researchers assessed development of pain-related behaviors and concomitant changes in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), nerves that carry signals from sensory organs toward the brain. They found that a chemokine known as monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 (CCL2) and its receptor, chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), are central to the development of pain associated with knee OA.
Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 regulates migration and infiltration of monocytes into tissues where they replenish infection-fighting macrophages. Previous research has shown that MCP-1/CCR2 are central in pain development following nerve injury.
In the study, following surgery the laboratory mice developed mechanical allodynia that lasted 16 weeks. Levels of MCP-1, CCR2 mRNA and protein were temporarily elevated, and neuronal signaling activity increased in the DRG at eight weeks after surgery. This result correlated with the presentation of movement-provoked pain behaviors (for instance, mice with OA travelled less distance, when monitored overnight, and climbed less often on the lid of their cage -- suggesting that they avoid movement that triggers pain) which were maintained up to 16 weeks.
Mice that lack Ccr2 (knockout mice) also developed mechanical allodynia, but this began to resolve from eight weeks onward. Despite having severe allodynia and structural knee joint damage equal to that in normal mice, Ccr2-knockout mice did not develop movement-provoked pain behaviors at eight weeks.
To confirm the key role of CCR2 signaling in development of the observed movement-provoked pain behavior after surgery, the researchers administered a CCR2 receptor-blocker to normal mice at nine weeks after surgery and found that this reversed the decrease in distance traveled, that is, movement-provoked pain behavior.
Interestingly, levels of MCP-1 and CCR2 returned to baseline or lower by 16 weeks in mice exhibiting movement-provoked pain behaviors. This finding may suggest that the MCP-1/CCR2 pathway is involved only in the initiation of changes in the DRG, but once macrophages are present, the process is no longer dependent on increased MCP-1/CCR2.
"Increased expression of both MCP-1 and its receptor CCR2 may mediate increased pain signaling through direct excitation of DRG neurons, as well as through attracting macrophages to the DRG," the researchers said.
"This is an important contribution to the field of osteoarthritis research. Rather than looking at the cartilage breakdown pathway in osteoarthritis, Dr. Malfait and her colleagues are looking at the pain pathway, and this can take OA research in to a novel direction that can lead to new pain remedies in the future," said Dr. Joshua Jacobs, professor and chairman of orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center.
Treatment of OA in the United States costs almost $200 billion annually. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is expected that by 2030 nearly 70 million adults in the U.S. will have been diagnosed with some form of arthritis.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, an estimated 27 million Americans live with OA, but, despite the frequency of the disease, its cause is still not completely known and there is no cure. In fact, many different factors may play a role in whether or not you get OA, including age, obesity, injury or overuse and genetics.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the oldest and most common forms of arthritis and is a chronic condition characterized by the breakdown of the joint's cartilage. Cartilage is the part of the joint that cushions the ends of the bones and allows easy movement of joints. The breakdown of cartilage causes the bones to rub against each other, causing stiffness, pain and loss of movement in the joint.
Malfait's co-researchers on this study were Rush scientists Rachel E. Miller. PhD, Phuoong B. Tran, PhD, Rosalina Das, and Nayereh Ghoreishi-Haack, and Dr. Richard J. Miller, PhD, and Dongjun Ren from Northwestern University.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rush University Medical Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/OsgbDFVFGqI/121227173053.htm
soul train nevada caucus ufc 143 what time does the super bowl start super bowl 2012 josephine baker ben gazzara
(Reuters) - After interviewing food historians, scholars, cooks, doctors, activists and consumers for his new film "Soul Food Junkies," filmmaker Byron Hurt concluded that an addiction to soul food is killing African-Americans at an alarming rate.
The movie, which will premiere on January 14 on U.S. public broadcasting television, examines how black cultural identity is linked to high-calorie, high-fat food such as fried chicken and barbecued ribs and how eating habits may be changing.
In the deeply personal film, Hurt details his father's fight and eventual death from pancreatic cancer. A high-fat diet is a risk factor for the illness, according to researchers at Duke University in North Carolina.
"I never questioned what we ate or how much," 42-year-old New Jersey-based Hurt says in the film that travels from New Jersey and New York to Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Chicago.
"My father went from being young and fit to twice his size."
Hurt, who also made "Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes," decided to examine the link between calorie-loaded soul food and illnesses among blacks after his father was diagnosed in 2006.
He delves into his family history, as well as slavery, the African diaspora and the black power movement in the film and provides photographs, drawings, historic film footage and maps.
In Jackson, Mississippi, Hurt joined football fans for ribs and corn cooked with pigs' feet and turkey necks. He also visited Peaches Restaurant, founded in 1961, where freedom riders and civil rights activists including Martin Luther King Jr. ate.
Hurt, whose family came from Milledgeville, Georgia, grew up on a diet of fried chicken, pork chops, macaroni and cheese, potatoes and gravy, barbecued ribs, sweet potato pie, collard greens, ham hocks and black-eyed peas.
"The history of Southern food is complex," he said. "In many ways, the term soul food is a reduction of our culinary foodways."
The origins of the diet lie in the history of American slavery, according to food historian Jessica B. Harris, who appears in the film. Slaves ate a high-fat, high-calorie diet that would allow them to burn 3,000 calories a day working, she explained.
Southern food began to be called soul food during the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s, according to Hurt.
"There's an emotional connection and cultural pride in what they see as the food their population survived on in difficult times," he said.
But Hurt said African-Americans are being devastated by nutrition-related diseases.
Black adults have the highest rates of obesity and a higher prevalence of diabetes than whites, and are twice as likely to die of stroke before age 75 than other population groups, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Besides tradition and habit, poverty and neighborhoods without good supermarkets also contribute to an unhealthy diet, Hurt said.
"Low-income communities of color lack access to vegetables and have an overabundance of fast food and highly processed foods that are high in calories and fats. I always know when I'm in a community of color because I see ... very, very few supermarkets and health food stores," he added.
In her book, "High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America," Harris said the prevalence of over processed foods, low-quality meats, and second- or third-rate produce in minority neighborhoods amounts to "culinary apartheid."
In the film, Marc Lamont Hill, an associate professor of English education at Columbia University in New York, described minority health problems related to poor diet as "21st-century genocide."
Hurt says the government can help by increasing urban access to quality food and requiring calorie counts to be displayed on restaurant menus.
Nonprofit organizations such as Growing Power Inc., which runs urban farms in Chicago and Milwaukee, provide fresh vegetables to minority neighborhoods.
Brian Ellis, 21, said all he ate was fast food when he started working at one of Growing Power's urban farms in Chicago when he was 14.
"Then I started eating food I'd never seen before like Swiss chard," said Ellis, who appears in the film. "I never knew what beets were. I'd never seen sprouts before. I'm not that big of a beet fan, but I love sprouts. I could eat sprouts all day."
(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Mohammad Zargham)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/film-explores-african-americans-unhealthy-soul-food-habit-012935083.html
felicia day nfl 2012 draft st louis rams miami dolphins buffalo bills minnesota vikings pittsburgh steelers
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor
It?s been a busy couple of quarters for office transactions in Boston?s Seaport District and the change in ownership of the 407,500-square-foot Fort Point portfolio is among the latest. Clarion Partners L.L.C. purchased the group of six buildings from a joint venture consisting of Angelo, Gordon & Co. and National Development for $128.5 million.
The portfolio, which has a current occupancy level of 96 percent, was marketed by commercial real estate and capital markets services provider HFF on behalf of the seller. Included in the collection of office addresses are the 94,300-square-foot property at 33-41 Farnsworth St.; 34 and 44 Farnsworth St., featuring a respective 24,400 and 93,800 square feet; 332 and 374 Congress St., which offer 34,400 and 96,200 square feet, respectively; and the 64,200-square-foot 263 Summer St. All six of the one-time manufacturing and warehouse structures are of the brick-and-beam style that was popular during their development more than 100 years ago; a style that has now come to appeal to those tech and creative users that are flooding into the Seaport District or, as it is increasingly referred to, the Innovation District.
?These buildings have great bones and really lend themselves to today?s tenants, which require open spaces, abundant infrastructure and collaborative work environments,? Coleman Benedict, senior managing director with HFF, said in a prepared statement. ?The Fort Point office submarket is one of the most dynamic in the country. With a long list of tenants searching for a limited amount of available space, it is sure to continue to be so for years to come.?
Indeed, in Fort Point and other neighborhoods of the Seaport District, vacancies are on the decline and rental rates are on the rise. The submarket?s 10.3 percent vacancy rate in the third quarter marked a noteworthy drop from the 13.3 percent figure in the third quarter of 2011, according to statistics from commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle.? And the demand for space can certainly be seen in the price tags, even in the Class B segment of the market, where year over year overall asking rents jumped from $29.97 to $36.38.
The increasingly positive numbers are hardly lost on the Fort Point portfolio?s new owner. As Gary Rufrano, a senior vice president with Clarion, said in a press release, the company plans to capitalize on the ?significant opportunity to add value to the portfolio by capturing the growth in the Seaport and by bringing rents up to market levels.?
It seems as though there?s a beacon in the Seaport District that?s attracting all players in the office sector.? They?re buying it, they?re building it and they?re leasing it.
Among the recent acquisitions was DivcoWest Properties? $106.8 million purchase of Brickman Associates? 362,600-square-foot portfolio, and Skanska USA Commercial Development?s $33 million purchase of Parcel L1 within the Seaport Square development, where the company will erect a 455,000-square-foot office tower.
Projects presently under development include AREA Property Partners and Commonwealth Ventures? 500,000-square-foot One Channel Center, for which HFF recently arranged a $170 million construction loan.? Leasing activity has also been brisk. In December alone, national law firm Goodwin Procter signed a letter of intent to relocate its home to 350,000 square feet of space in a build-to-suit commercial high-rise at the Fan Pier mixed-use waterfront development, and car-sharing network Zipcar Inc. announced that it will move its corporate headquarters from neighboring Cambridge, Mass., and park its business at 35 Thompson Place, occupying the 46,000-square-foot building in its entirety.
enemy of the state golden globe nominees joe philbin miss america pageant 2012 shipwreck jose aldo vs chad mendes lana del rey
MONCLOVA, Mexico (AP) ? The white-haired bishop stepped before some 7,000 faithful gathered in a baseball stadium in this violence-plagued northern border state. He led the gathering through the rituals of his Mass, reciting prayers echoed back by the massive crowd. And then his voice rose.
Politicians are tied to organized crime, Bishop Raul Vera bellowed while inaugurating the church's Year of Faith. Lawmakers' attempts to curb money laundering are intentionally weak. New labor reforms are a way to enslave Mexican workers.
How, Vera asked, can Mexicans follow leaders "who are the ones who have let organized crime grow, who have let criminals do what they do unpunished, because there's no justice in this country!"
In a nation where some clergy have been cowed into silence by drug cartels and official power, Vera is clearly unafraid to speak. That makes him an important voice of dissent in a country where the Roman Catholic Church often works hand-in-hand with the powerful, and where cynicism about politics is widespread and corrosive.
Vera's realm is a wide swath of Coahuila, a state bordering Texas that's become a hideout for the brutal Zetas drug cartel. It's where the current governor's nephew was killed in October and the former governor, the victim's father, resigned last year as leader of the political party that just returned to power with newly inaugurated President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Marked by his unvarnished speech, the Saltillo bishop's voice carries beyond his diocese here, especially when he weighs in on hot issues such as drug violence, vulnerable immigrants and gay rights.
In late 2007, Mexico City's Human Rights Commission denounced death threats against Vera and a burglary of the diocese's human rights offices. The following year, after Coahuila became the first Mexican state to allow civil unions for gay couples, a move the bishop endorsed, Vera was invited to speak at a U.S.-based conference for a Catholic gay and lesbian organization. In 2010, he was awarded a human rights prize in Norway.
Anonymous critics have hung banners outside the cathedral asking for what they called a real Catholic bishop. And last year, the 67-year-old was summoned to the Vatican to explain a church outreach program to gay youth.
Natalia Ni?o, president of Familias Mundi in Saltillo, told the Catholic News Agency last year that Vera had placed too much focus on supporting the gay community.
"A pastoral commitment to homosexual persons is necessary and welcomed, but not at the expense of the family and a solid pastoral plan for marriage and family, which is unfortunately being neglected in the diocese," she said.
Vera, who has had government bodyguards before, said he was foregoing similar security despite the criticism and threats. Such measures were rare and frowned upon in Saltillo, he said.
"I'm not the only one exposed, there are lots of people exposed who work with immigrants, with the missing," Vera said. "How do I cover myself? Them?"
Mexico's Bishops Conference did not respond to repeated requests for an interview about Vera. The church's hierarchy in Mexico did issue a statement in 2010 congratulating Vera on his human rights prize, and last year, the church condemned anonymous threats against him.
Vera's office often lends more weight to his words, especially when he speaks up about human rights, said Emiliano Ruiz Parra, a Mexican journalist and author of a new book that portrays Vera and other "black sheep" of the church in Mexico.
"Among the defenders of human rights he is the one who hedges the least, he says things the way they are," Parra said before Pena Nieto's Dec. 1 inauguration. "He's not afraid, for example, to take on the president, the one who's leaving or the president-elect."
Vera's homily on an October Sunday in Monclova included a lengthy diatribe about an alleged vote-buying scheme involving grocery store gift cards critics say were distributed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI. Citing press reports, the bishop told the crowd organized crime paid for the scheme and helped Pe?a Nieto's victory. He also labeled as "collaborators" anyone who took a gift card in exchange for their vote.
"What we're seeing now is nothing other than the reaccommodation of the criminal groups with the new government teams," Vera said later as he raced back to Saltillo for another Mass. "The criminal groups always have their agreements with those who are in the state governments, in the federal government."
An industrial hub on the high desert about an hour west of Monterrey, Saltillo had long been known as a quiet haven in Mexico, distinguished by its auto manufacturing and a modern museum exhaustively detailing the surrounding terrain.
In recent years, however, the area has fallen victim to the drug violence plaguing other parts of Mexico. In 2011, 729 murders hit the state, compared to 449 the year before and 107 in 2006, according to preliminary figures released by the government this summer. Four bodies were found hanging from a Saltillo overpass earlier this month.
Until the nephew of Gov. Ruben Moreira was killed in early October, the political class had showed little concern for violence, Vera said.
"Fear of the conditions that Mexico is going through with the insecurity, with so much violence, makes us silent, and Don Raul is a strong voice who says what the rest of us are too scared to say," said Maria Luz Lopez Morales, a Vera friend and self-professed atheist who runs literacy programs for women in rural areas outside Monclova.
Vera arrived in Saltillo in 2000, after serving as the co-bishop in a deeply divided diocese in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, where Zapatista rebels were battling government troops. He came with a reputation as a social crusader.
"Ever since I arrived here, as I came from Chiapas and I wasn't a person who was going to support the government, since this moment they decided that my image needed to be restrained," Vera said. He pointed to critical coverage from a local television network where a host once displayed Vera's picture surrounded by flames of eternal damnation. Vera said he believed the host was paid to do the government's bidding.
In February 2006, Vera celebrated Mass at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine where 65 miners had perished and spent days with their families hammering the mine's owners, government officials and union leaders for dangerous working conditions.
Five months later, he traveled to Castanos, a small town near Monclova, where soldiers had been arrested in connection to the sexual assaults of more than a dozen prostitutes. He and his longtime collaborator Jackie Campbell started their own investigation, leading the diocese's human rights office to successfully push to try some of the soldiers in civilian courts, where several were sentenced.
Mysterious cars followed Vera and Campbell during that time. Campbell's home phone line was cut and Vera was threatened. Campbell eventually moved to Argentina for three years to escape the harassment and to pursue graduate studies.
Vera has also demanded investigations into the thousands of migrants who have gone missing while passing through the state and clamored for a DNA database to identify bodies. In an email, the Rev. Pedro Pantoja, who oversees the diocese's migrant programs, said he's enjoyed total support from Vera and called his commitment to social causes "prophetic."
What's drawn perhaps the most controversy has been Vera's stand on gay rights, which even called Rome's attention. In 2001, the Rev. Robert Coogan, an American priest in Saltillo ordained by Vera, suggested starting an outreach program to gay youth, after a teenager came to him when his parents threw him out of the house. Vera lent his support to the program, called Comunidad San Elredo, and later escaped reprimand when called to the Vatican to explain it.
"It flows out of his conviction: The church is for everyone," Coogan said.
Parishioner Julia Castillo, of Saltillo, said Vera wasn't just making headlines with his bold stands. He was also inspiring Mexicans at a time when many are feeling besieged.
"He talks about all of the injustice there is right now, of all the danger there is, that we have to stick together to fight against the corruption, above all in the government and the police," Castillo said. "We like the way he is."
___
Associated Press writer Galia Garcia-Palafox in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-bishop-inspires-infuriates-activism-162210371.html
weather channel mta ellen degeneres tomb of the unknown soldier tomb of the unknown soldier HMS Bounty dominion power
DEAR ABBY: While searching for two of my husband's childhood friends, with his knowledge, I believe I may have found a child he doesn't know is his. I'm not positive that the child is his, but the time frame and location indicate that he could be, and there's a strong resemblance to my husband's brother. (I have seen photos on the Internet.) I am curious whether my hunch is correct, but I'm afraid of asking the questions, not knowing how they would be received. My husband is a kind and caring person, a great husband and father. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/huawei-shows-off-6-1-inch-android-phablet-130534021.html
sean hannity bobby petrino fired buffett rule lollapalooza lineup joss whedon ronnie montrose melissa gilbert dancing with the stars
By Nicholas Rizzi, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
NEW DORP BEACH ? A tent city set up to serve as a headquarters for Staten Island relief efforts following Hurricane Sandy will be pulled down by New Year's Day, volunteers have been told.
Organizers of a relief camp set up in New Dorp Beach, which hands out hot food, clothing, heaters and cleaning supplies to people hard hit by Sandy, said the city told them to take down the tents before Jan. 1 because of fears they couldn't withstand winter weather.
?January 1st I?m being shut down because of weather conditions,? said Donna Graziano, 52, who runs the Cedar Grove Community Hub group of volunteer tents, which in open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day at Cedar Grove Avenue and New Dorp Lane.
She said at a meeting of volunteers and affected residents called Thursday night that she was told the ruling would affect tents set up on public property across the city.
?If they?re outside, they?re going to be shut down,? she said.
The mayor's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Graziano's community of five large tents serves residents who live near Cedar Grove Avenue ? one of the worst affected areas in the city.
Thursday's meeting was attended by more than 20 residents who signed a petition to keep the tents open.
?They can?t come down,? said Lorraine Orobello, 54, who lost her home in the storm. ?What are we going to do? This is part of the healing process.?
Orobello said that nearly two months after Sandy, many people thought the rebuilding process would be much faster. However, she said many people still don?t have power or hot water and the service from the volunteers is invaluable.
Graziano, who lives in Brooklyn, said if she could move her tents onto private property she thinks the city wouldn?t be able to shut her down, but she has not been able to find a suitable space.
?I feel bad, very bad,? said Frank Russo, 61, a 13-year resident of the neighborhood who signed the petition. ?Why are they doing this? What?s the issue here? Our winters have been mild.?
Russo said that he?s been coming to the tents for hot food every day since they opened up and said the neighborhood still needs the help.
Graziano said that many residents nearby still don?t have heat, hot water or power and can?t cook food.
?A lot don't have a way to cook and feed themselves right now,? she said. ?There are still some people without electricity.?
Approximately 509 residents in Staten Island are still without power, a Con Edison spokesman said. To get power back, residents need to hire a contractor to repair their electrical systems.
In the tents, volunteers have set up a line of catering trays for residents, a Christmas tree, a TV and outside heaters.
?We had tried to make this feel like a personal getaway,? Graziano said during the meeting. ?You guys became our family.?
The volunteer community started small with a barbecue and some hot dogs, but grew into a five-tent complex in a parking lot, with members from Occupy Sandy joining, some sleeping in a heated tent.
Graziano, who has been helping out for nearly 52 days, said that?s she tried to move the site or rent a location, but couldn't afford it.
?I run this center on zero grants,? she said.
She said that she promised from the start to stay in the neighborhood until she wasn't needed anymore.
"I want to go home to my kids," she said. "But I made a promise."
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/23/staten-island-sandy-relief-camp-cold-weather_n_2355920.html
Amish Mafia Dave Grohl 121212 Cal State Fullerton Pacific Rim tumblr anne hathaway
??Zoo education exhibition an excellent event for the holidays
Hong Kong (HKSAR) - The Christmas and New Year holidays are around the corner. Are you thinking of activities that can both relax yourself and enrich your knowledge? The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) is inviting the public to visit the annual "Zoo Education Exhibition 2012 - The Most Extreme Animals in the World" roving exhibition.Besides visiting the exhibition, members of the public can also visit the interesting scenic spots in various parks.
"Through the exhibition, we hope to arouse public interest in animal ecology and enhance public awareness of nature conservation," a spokesman for the department said.
The exhibition will be held at Tuen Mun Park, Yuen Long Park, Tai Po Waterfront Park and the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens (HKZBG) from today (December 24) to January 20 next year. The exhibition was held earlier in Kowloon Park and Hong Kong Park.
"Display panels well illustrated with lively photos and featuring information about 20 of the most extreme animals in the sea and the sky as well as on land will be put up in parks. Members of the public can learn more about the dimensions, weight, height and speed of these amazing animals," the spokesman said.
"They are shown with other interesting information about animals, like which animal on land is the largest or which snake is the fastest moving, on the display panels," he added.
While touring around the roving exhibition, members of the public are welcome to visit various specialised facilities introducing the animals in the parks. Visitors will not only enrich their knowledge on nature conservation, but also spend an extraordinary Christmas holiday.
The Reptile House in Tuen Mun Park has both indoor terraria and a courtyard terrarium displaying various species of reptiles.
Most of the reptiles are endangered species, such as the black pond turtle, the radiated tortoise, the pig-nosed turtle, the flat-backed spider tortoise, the spurred tortoise, the spider tortoise, the black and white tegu and the mangrove monitor.
It also has some reptile specimens, with textual and pictorial information, on display. Visitors can learn more about the distribution of each individual species in the world, its habitat and its diet.
Moreover, visitors to the HKZBG will be impressed by some 70 mammals, 300 birds and over 50 reptiles breeding in the park. They include endangered species like the buff-cheeked gibbon, the red-crowned crane and the Chinese alligator.
Visitors may also make use of the chance to visit the education and exhibition centre there to learn more about the characteristics of these animals.
Apart from characteristic facilities in these parks, the Insect House at Tai Po Waterfront Park exhibits various insect specimens. An amazing variety of precious birds in the Aviary Pagoda including the black-naped oriole, the silver-eared mesia and the Mount Omei liocichla will also win the hearts of visitors to Yuen Long Park.
"To celebrate the festive season, do come and visit the Zoo Education Exhibition and the specialised animal facilities in the parks with your family members and friends. You can relax yourself and get away from the hustle and bustle of city life while at the same time broaden your horizons.
It is surely an excellent activity that you should not miss," the spokesman said.
Details of the roving exhibition are as follows:
VenuePeriod
-----------
Tuen Mun ParkDecember 24 to 30
(Reptile House)
Yuen Long ParkDecember 31 to January 6
(Aviary Entrance)
Tai Po Waterfront ParkJanuary 7 to 13
(Pavilion near
Insect House)
Hong Kong ZoologicalJanuary 14 to 20
and Botanical Gardens
For enquiries, please call 2723 6047.
Source: HKSAR Government
Published on: 2012-12-24
Limited copyright is granted for you to use and/or republish any story on this site for any legitimate media purpose as long as you reference 7thSpace and any source mentioned in the story above. Please make sure to read our disclaimer prior to contacting 7thSpace Interactive. To contact our editors, visit our online helpdesk. If you wish submit your own press release, click here.Comments
Minka Kelly sex tape Colorado shooting Colorado shooting victims aurora Angie Everhart tom hardy British Open leaderboard
A Social Security Administration employee was formally reprimanded earlier this month for for excessive workplace flatulence, according to a Dec. 10 letter obtained by The Smoking Gun.
The 38-year-old, who worked out of a Baltimore office, was hit with a five-page letter detailing the dates and times of his noxious offenses. The letter informed the worker that his ?uncontrollable flatulence? created an ?intolerable? and ?hostile? environment for coworkers -- many of which had lodged complaints.
(Read the entire letter over at The Smoking Gun)
The letter's log cited 17 dates, and 60 specific times, that the worker allegedly passed gas. The formal reprimand appears to have been a last resort for management, who they say addressed the embarrassing issue with the worker multiple times. (The employee allegedly submitted no evidence to indicate that he can't control the problem).
While the federal employee currently only has to deal with an embarrassing letter in his personnel file, there are others who have lost their jobs for less. In July, a receptionist in Minnesota claims she was fired from her job at the hospital's Cancer Center because she smelled of smoke at work. The receptionist was indeed a regular smoker, but she claims she never smoked while on the job or on break.
Likewise, the grounds for legal dismissal are becoming even more bizarre in some cases. On Dec, 21, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a dentist acted legally when he fired an assistant he found attractive because he and his wife viewed his attraction to the woman as a threat to their marriage.
The court actually ruled that an employer may fire an employee they see as an "irresistible attraction," even if the employee has done nothing to encourage attraction, engage in flirtation, or otherwise done anything wrong.
Also on HuffPost:
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/22/federal-employee-issues-reprimand-flatulence_n_2352022.html
bowling green marysville tornados dr. seuss dr seuss the temptations rush limbaugh sandra fluke
CARACAS, Venezuela ? Venezuela's government said Saturday that President Hugo Chavez's condition is becoming increasingly stable as the socialist leader recovers from a cancer-related operation in Cuba.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro said ruling party member Cilia Flores gave him the update on Chavez's recovery upon her return from the communist-led island.
"Each day that passes, his recovery is more stable and he's receiving the best treatment," Maduro told to a crowd of government supporters in Yaracuy state.
Chavez underwent surgery Dec. 11, about two months after being elected to another six-year presidential term. It was his fourth cancer-related operation since June 2011.
Complications following the latest surgery and Chavez's silence since the procedure have thrown into doubt whether he will be able to return to Venezuela for his Jan. 10 inauguration.
National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello said earlier Saturday that ruling party lawmakers, who hold a majority in the legislature, won't call a new presidential election if Chavez can't return from Cuba in time for the swearing-in ceremony.
"That's not going to happen," he said.
Cabello's statement pointed to an impending legal dispute that would likely be resolved by Venezuela's Supreme Court, which is packed with justices appointed by pro-Chavez lawmakers.
Opposition leaders argue that the constitution does not allow for a president's inauguration to be postponed.
On Thursday, Maduro said Chavez has been with his family resting while receiving treatment for a respiratory infection.
In addition to the infection, the 58-year-old Chavez also suffered bleeding during the operation, which the government said was promptly stanched.
Related on HuffPost:
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/22/hugo-chavez-stable_n_2353120.html
papa johns guacamole recipe ufc 143 results kickoff time super bowl 2012 superbowl national anthem patriots vs giants super bowl superbowl halftime show
